The
World Needs Reconciliation
Centres
TFF PressInfo
76
August 19, 1999
"Do you remember Kim, the 9-year old Vietnamese girl,
running as she was hit by napalm from U.S. warplanes in
1972? That picture haunted John Plummer for 24 years; he'd
been a helicopter pilot and helped organise the napalm raid.
His marriage crashed, he isolated himself and took to
drinking; he eventually became a Methodist pastor in
Virginia. In 1996, Kim and John met and he says: 'Kim
saw my grief, my pain, my sorrow...She held out her arms to
me and embraced me. All I could say was 'I'm sorry; I'm
sorry - over and over again. And at the same time she was
saying, 'It's all right, I forgive you.' They are now good
friends, and call each other regularly.*
This may be a unique story, but how can we talk about
restoring peace after wars' hurt and harm without paying
attention to the human aspects of conflicts in general and
that of forgiveness and reconciliation in particular?" asks
TFF director Jan Oberg. "I think we need to make
forgiveness and reconciliation a central objective: in
research and studies, in training and education and, above
all, we should empower every civilian and military - and
every international organisation engaged in war-torn
societies - to work for it with the locals.
"Take a look at Bosnia and Croatia since 1995, look at
Kosovo now, or Somalia, or...Have people really held out
their arms or said 'I forgive you'? Come together in trust?
Have they learnt how to deal with the past, not in order to
forget it or to blame each other, but to acknowledge what
happened and find ways to avoid it ever happening again? Can
that even be said about South Africa? It is easy to repair
houses and infrastructure, it's easy to throw money around
and talk about human rights? But what if people deep down
keep on hating each other and won't even dream about doing
what Kim and John did? Will they themselves ever be happy
and at peace with themselves? Will their children? What
kind of society will it be if we cannot also, so to speak,
repair souls and help create tolerance, co-existence, even
cooperation and love?"
Jan Oberg continues, "One of the most moving experiences
in my life was when, together with TFF team members, we
helped a few Croats and Serbs in Eastern Slavonia, Croatia,
come together: young boys and girls as well as the parent
generation who were permitted for the first time to talk
face-to-face about what had happened - but to stick to facts
only and 'I language' and avoid blaming. Many cried,
successively many laughed together - some now are friends
and some do projects together - and, yes, some have left or
lost hope again. TFF keeps working there today.
It made me understand how neglected the whole issue of
'soul reconstruction' is - and how vain everything else will
be without it. You can pour any amount of dollars into
Kosovo - it will not create peace unless we also, in deep
respect and cooperation with the locals on all side, do
something that can not be measured in money terms.
Recently I was in Burundi, where much worse violence has
hit many more people. In two weeks I heard more sensible and
genuine peace talk among NGOs and ministers than I have
heard during TFF's 8-year mission in ex-Yugoslavia. I have
no answer, but I wonder whether we Westerners are more
oriented toward a peace that builds on the sword, legality,
mechanics and external implanting of economic, political and
human rights conditions for peace - whereas others may see
peace more in the direction of trying to be at peace with
oneself, come to terms with the evil that has been, find
your own ways and use your local cultural rituals and
traditions to facilitate forgiveness and reconciliation? In
short, that the rich West goes for more or less
interventionist quick-fix peace packages where people come
last, while other cultures put people and non-material
dimensions first and know that real peace has to come from
within the individual and the social fabric. If so, we
Westerners may have something important to learn about
peace-making in other cultures!
There are many definitions of it, but forgiveness is an
individual moral act of freeing oneself from the burden of
hate and the right to revenge. Reconciliation takes at least
two and aims at achieving something constructive out of a
dark, hurtful past. It does NOT mean forgetting, it means
remembering the past in order to live normally, or more
fully, in the future. None of it can be achieved by money,
by weapons or by legal measures - and it goes far deeper
than human rights training.
To be more concrete," Jan Oberg continues, "it is time to
learn from all these terrible wars and draw constructive
conclusions from moral and intellectual catastrophes such as
the international 'community's present one in Kosovo. Let's
imagine that we establish regional institutes (or "centres"
or "academies") for reconciliation in regions where
conflicts have historically occurred frequently and risk is
high that they will also in the future. Reconciliation could
be understood here as an umbrella concept covering basically
what happens from the moment a cease fire agreement is
signed up to peaceful life, normalisation and socioeconomic
development once again takes place &emdash; but with special
emphasis on the human dimensions of post-war
reconstruction.
For instance, we need more research on successful peace
agreements and conflict-resolution processes, taking stock
of the human experience, field studies of countries that
have successfully learned to live with a painful past
&emdash; lessons learned from old and contemporary history.
We need systematic studies of the noble art of saying "I am
sorry" &emdash; e.g. repentance, forgiveness, respect,
healing, a collective acting out of sorrow and traumas and
how to simultaneously move towards a vision of peaceful
existence, either together or as good neighbours; and we
need to "target" children and youth for long term
violence-prevention - which in many cases means different
schools, teaching materials and history books.
We need to think of memorials for all victims and all
sides (as in Okinawa), books, religious places, theatre
performances, exhibitions. We must build relations with
those who have gone through war elsewhere. We need truth and
reconciliation committees, for sure but also future
workshops. And we need to expand facilities and improve
methods for therapy such as empowerment of survivors;
reinstating self control; rejection of relations of
dominance and submission; spiritual regeneration; mourning
and remembrance; developing a broad attachment to others,
and work for the reconstruction of a narrative of history
and the trauma and and constructive integration of it into
memory. The list is endless!
The centres or institutes should be located in regions in
which conflicts have been frequent historically and where
they are likely to remain also for the future such as the
Balkans, the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, South
East Asia, Central America, the Horn of Africa, southern
Africa etc. In each region a site should be found that is
itself expressive of a peace and reconciliation sentiment,
for historical or other reason, or where peace has
successfully been concluded. (If in Europe one could imagine
Åland, Trento/Alto Adige/South Tirol,
Schleswig-Holstein).
The institutes should do research, consultancy with
formerly conflicting parties, including mediation and peace
implementation planning, public outreach and, where
feasible, set up pilot projects in post-war communities with
the parties; and they should do courses, seminars and
training for adversaries as well as locals who want to have
an education in peace and reconciliation. Thus, theory and
practise mixed and continuously inspiring each other.
The boards of these centres should be drawn from local
professionals but could have experienced international
advisers. Their members should be drawn from 1) social and
human sciences including peace research and peace education,
2) governments, including local government, 3) civil society
organisations, 4) humanitarian organisations and 5) area
experts.
The centres would have a liaison committee in permanent
contact with all relevant international organisations being
present in the area such as the UN, OSCE, UNHCR,
humanitarian organisations, regional associations such as
the OAU, ASEAN, EU etc. It would discuss opportunities for
co-operation and coordination, including joint training
seminars of local and international staff on the spot.
The multi-ethnic/cultural/competent staff (research,
consultants, information, (pilot) project managers and
staff, area experts etc. would be drawn from the same five
groups of the board. The whole point is to bring together -
reconciliate - those five groups, too, and thereby promote
integrated, effective reconciliation on the ground. Thus,
the institutes would, by their organisation and human skills
be expressive of the values it would teach others.
The institutes should be financed by the same
constituencies and by anybody else who sympathises with the
idea. In the beginning some institutes might need a special
care from a government such as that of Sweden and other
Nordic governments. No single donor, however, should
exercise any particular influence on these institutes.
In order to market the idea internationally, enlightened
governments and selected NGOs might take the initiative to
set up an international preparatory committee that would
dissolve itself when the first boards have been
established.
And one more thing," adds Jan Oberg. "We should not see
forgiveness and reconciliation only in a postwar
perspective. Before wars break out there is a lot of
humiliation, human rights violations, propaganda against
certain groups, or similar indicators of something much
worse to come. As part of violence preventive diplomacy,
pre-war forgiveness and reconciliation should be introduced
- like we could study cases (from everyday lives and
politics) where such processes helped people turn away from
the road to war.
The Year 2000 is proclaimed by the General Assembly of
the United Nations as The International Year for the Culture
of Peace and the years 2001-2010 as the International Decade
for a Culture of Peace and Non-violence for the Children of
the World. What more appropriate idea then to set up centres
for the study and practise of forgiveness, reconciliation
and, consequently, of nonviolent handling of human
conflicts?" ends Jan Oberg.
*) "The Lost Art of Forgiving" by John Christoph Arnold,
The Plough Publishing House 1998
© TFF 1999
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